Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

Crossroads

Which Daisuke Matsuzaka will we get tonight at Rogers Centre? The one who looked so good his first three starts, or the one who was, yeah, very mediocre the next three times out.

Matsuzaka was here at the ballpark at 2 p.m. today and was out on the field doing cardio work by 3. This isn’t all that typical for a pitcher on the day of his game, but it’s a little fascinating.

Manager Terry Francona said that Jamie Moyer is another guy who runs on the day he pitches. Again, Daisuke is still trying to find a balance between what worked for him in Japan and what can work for him here. Tito also mentioned that Daisuke stayed off the weights this week and focused more on the running.

This is the first time this season that I have felt zero buzz for a Daisuke start. The whole thing has kind of flat-lined after the way he pitched the last three times out, and Okajima has become the bigger story to the media.

But it will only take a dominant outing or two from Matsuzaka to reverse that.

As for the latest controversy surrounding Schilling, I’m bored by it. He said yesterday what a lot of players think, but don’t publicly say. The apology was necessary because I think he did misrepresent some things. For example, Bonds has never admitted to knowingly using steroids. He did admit to taking the cream, which he claimed to think was flaxseed oil. Any way, it’s all semantics at this point.

More amazing to me is the way Papi’s comments to Michael Silverman were misconstrued. Terry Francona told us today that a Toronto journalist actually came up to him in the manager’s office yesterday and said, "What do you think about David Ortiz admitting to using steroids?"

What are some people thinking. I thought the article was good, and that Ortiz represented himself well. All he said was that he used to take some protein shakes in the Dominican and not know every ingredient that was in them, and that he is a lot more careful about that stuff now. Much ado about nothing.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how Dice-K responds to his recent crisis tonight. Will he sink into a deeper hole or will he bust out with a 10-K performance?

Later,

Ian.

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13 Comments

Dice-K is really pitching well tonight. He has gotten a lot of strikeouts, which is good. I would also like him to have some more pop ups and ground balls. He could easily save his pitch count by getting more grounders. Manny being Manny does it again with a homer. Did anyone notice that Manny tweaked his stance a little by not jazzing his arms up and doing the wind-up with his arms. Now, he has just been moving his arms side tob side instead. I guess it works for him. He really needs to heat up. Papi’s having a great night as well. What happened to the nesn scoreboard? It was missing last night and its not there tonight either.

The new NESN scoreboard is so inconvenient, I agree. It doesn’t even have the balls and strikes count up, just the score and which runners are on base.

Anyways, Dice looked more like the guy we saw in his first 3 starts which is a definite good thing.

And the homerun derby continues for the second straight night in Toronto. Manny hit an absolute bomb and Papi hit a laser, while Lowell continues to amaze with his offense (.305, 6 HR, 25 RBI) and Pedroia stays hot (2-4, 2 R).

I can’t ever remember being this relaxed during the middle of a Red Sox season. It’s a good feeling.

What’s up with the NESN scoreboard? It’s annoying where it was today. Hopefully it gets fixed and not some new style.

With Schilling and his apology, I’m a bit amused by the whole thing honestly. Tito just laid down the law and it’s good he did cause I was a bit worried cause Schilling’s been in the news for more than just baseball as of late. As for Big Papi’s comments, I love how they get construed and I’m sure he’s annoyed. Heck I would be too. Big Papi was just giving his honest opinion about it all and it just gets thrown all over the place. Much ado about nothing indeed.

Nice win tonight. Dice-K’s mechanical adjustments look like they worked. Good to see the Sox score 9 again, too. The Sox are starting to put some serious distance between everyone in the AL East. The Yankees have been winning, yet they are still six out. Hopefully Wakefield’s knuckler dances tomorrow night, the Sox bats solve Roy Halladay and they leave Toronto with a sweep.

You said it, zachary! Relaxed. I was going to post how this year’s Sox just keep on winning with pitching blah blah, but you put it perfectly with that one simple statement. You’re so right, where’s the anxiety I associate with Sox fandom? It doesn’t seem right somehow, but I’ll take it!

1) Dice-K’s changeup wasn’t really working most of the night. I’m sure he’s still tinkering, so he may have another few starts that may cause us to cringe because of his tinkering.

2) I guess I was partially wrong on Piniero. He served up 2 runs, but then again, he hasn’t had regular work since our starters haven’t let the bullpen get work, lol.

3) So did Rem-Dawg call Tavarez “Manny’s Pet,” jokingly? Or was I hearing things?

4) Speaking of Tavarez, you guys should check out the the Yahoo! Sports rumor boards. Most of the people there are negative beyond negative. As long as Tavarez is consistent and not horrible, he’s happy with whatever role he’s given. Also, after Rem-Dawg’s joke, I can see why the Red Sox are keeping him: he keeps Manny happy. And that’s always a plus too.

As for the whole “RSN Anxiety Syndrome,” yeah it’s funny how it’s not there. I’ll take it for sure! I can’t wait for the Yankees Series down in the Bronx next week and especially the one in Fenway in the beginning of June. I kind of miss that drama.

A pretty good outing for Dice-K although he still had three walks and pitched from a 3-1 count several times. He’s got great stuff though and this is a step in the right direction.

Regarding Curt Schilling: In his apology, he made it crystal clear that while he believes what he said, he’s sorry he said it. In essence, he said it again. In reading his blog, most have made him a hero for his apology. He’s not a hero, not for that.

To be honest, I don’t think Barry Bonds cares one way or the other what Curt Schilling said. I don’t think Schilling’s comments hurt Bonds’ family or friends, or affected his life one bit. Barry Bonds will break Henry Aaron’s record. Who really knows if he did steroids or used some other illegal substance. It will be a travesty if Hank Aaron and the commissioner aren’t there when it happens. It will be the greatest baseball moment since Hank hit number 715. If I could be there, I would. It would be great to be a part of that. Nobody has proven to me that Bonds has used steroids. Most people think he has, and if that’s the case, we have only the ineptitude of Major League Baseball to blame for all this.

By the way, I’m a huge Curt Schilling fan. Although he sticks his foot in his mouth more often than he should, he’s the guy I want on the mound in a seventh game, and he’s a man of good intentions, and good will.

Not a ten K outing, but more than good enough. Just give me quality starts 2 out of every 3 games and I will be happy. To be honest I am more worried about Coco and Drew getting on a major roll then Daisuke.

Here’s the best thing about Tavarez: he’s got the type of personality that brings the team together. In much the same way Kevin Millar did in 2004, he’s adding in that extra bit of Chemistry which really makes everyone in the dugout relax and have fun. And once you relax, well, everything else comes easier.

This team feels like the team from 2004, both in skill and in personality. The type of chemistry that Tavarez brings to the table is what I feel was missing from the 2005 and 2006 rosters.

Doubtful, putting him in the leadoff spot adds pressure and we already saw how he responded to that (the first 20 games of the season). Plus Lugo has much better speed and it wouldn’t make sense to have your two fastest players in the 8-9 spots.

I’m not too worried about anybody on the team right now, Lugo and Drew included.

And I agree about the feeling of this team being similar to the 2004 team. Last year’s group was definitely more businesslike with Loretta, Gonzalez. This year Tavarez has emerged as a source of energy along with Lugo.

oh come on, Barry has done steriods, the question is about whether he knew he was doing them or not? Do you honestly believe a pro player doesn’t know what he’s putting into his body? Or a trainer would put steroids in his body without telling the athlete?

But for a moment lets pretend he didn’t know what was in the lotion… He still had steroids in his system, whether intentional or not he broke the rules and has been juiced to get to this record…

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